Replied By Joyce (Joelton, Tn) on 12/22/2009

You are right, the body does need iodine for the thyroid to function properly, and for a lot of other things including producing hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Just a couple of drops of Lugol's solution or SSKI daily is enough to take care of this, but when you take increased dosage of either for prolonged period you need to have your TSH checked every month or two and if your TSH goes up it tells you to lay off the iodine awhile and let the body return to normal.

For further information on SSKI (saturated solution of potassium iodide which is not much different from the Lugol's solution) type Potassium iodide in a search window and go through references to pull out Dr. Jonathan Wright's great article on SSKI, which tells you what to use it for and how much to use and approximately how long. You can print this out to keep for future reference. After my bout in the hospital last spring, I started taking 6 drops of SSKI daily for multiple purposes (loosen secretions in the head/lungs, get rid of small renal cysts, flush cholesterol out of blood vessels, and also locally for hemorrhoids) but had to drop off after about 2-3 months of this dosage because it did suppress my thyroid (when taking larger dose for prolonged period should have TSH checked every month or two).

The doctor wanted to prescribe me a low dose thyroid supplement but I declined and told her I'd just stop the SSKI temporarily and increase my B complex vitamins (which the thyroid also requires for proper functioning) and have another TSH in a month or two. The next TSH was back to normal, which tells you that when you treat your body right it works with you and balances out.

Another thing you should remember with SSKI or Lugol's solution is that you should never take it with any water containing chlorine as this reacts with it and causes the potassium iodide to revert to iodine.

Replied By Ted (Bangkok, Thailand) on 01/20/2010

Potassium iodide in general has the least side effects when taking the iodine supplements. A lugol's solution for most people, the use is limited to 1-2 drops. However in the case of a client I know, who has severe Parkinson's disease, they are far more sensitive to the lugol's solution, taken either internally or applied externally to the feet or applied to the throat area. Hence I have found another kind of iodine which produces even less side effects then Edgar Cayce's Nascent Iodine, which is the hydrogen iodide. I had to since this particular case is a hypothyroid. A lot of researchers really got stuck into what forms of iodine has the least side effects and allow the body to utilize them. For most people, I will use lugols' 1-2 drops in the evening with 500 to 1000 mg of vitamin C as it is more available. A potassium iodide will also do fine and has few side effects, but iodine in general will cause some people, at least initially of acne, being the most common problems. In practice, the use of iodine against Hashimoto does reduce them, but it's more likely that a person will not increase in energy. The effects of iodine is because it's a halogen, and a required mineral, it will also drive out cancer causing fluoride and bromine out of the body, even after months of use, it will continue to drive them out. The beneficial effects is it re activates the pineal gland, which is considered your organ's clock mechanism, such as a CPU clock in the computer, and allows for more regular sleep cycle. For example, the common benefits from increase energy is likely more regular sleep patterns which is most responsible for the increase in energy.

The reason why there are conflicting information is the body simply has trouble trying to get iodine and utilized them, as many forms of iodine produces side effect. So the Quick and Dirty rule is commonly used by conventional medicine such as giving out, thyroid medication instead of the use iodine. So you get a quick fix approach, which commercial scale is cost effective, for them, but won't cure your condition as you will end up taking thyroid medication for the rest of your life. So that doesn't make economic sense as a consumer. It just makes economic sense for the conventional medicine approach. As a result the best forms of iodine I have found is hydrogen iodide, nascent iodine, potassium iodide (or a similar form SSKI), are the ones with the least problem. A lugol's makes more economic sense for most people as they are more easy to find, but it's limited by the dose a person can take, which is usually 1-2 drops with vitamin C before sleep and this works too, at least for most people.

The other problem is how to get the body to really utilize the iodine, hence it's possible that lugol's solution can be taken with tyrosine, which helps the body utilize them, but magnesium seems to be also an important factor too, not just vitamin C so the person can take larger dose of iodine without problems. Therefore in event of a hypothyroidism, which in severe cases leads to goiter, it was well known that the use of iodine in larger doses was in fact the cure fo thyroid. This fact is known for over 150 years, but in today's meidicine the quick and dirty rule is slash and burn, which translates to remove the goiter, and take thyroid medication for the rest of your life. That doesn't make sense, so some may rationalize and just say it is shut down.

However, too much iodine might not be possible for the body to utilized them, since other supplements are needed so the body can handle them, such as taking tyrosine amino acid along with the iodine. It would be a boon to actually allow the body to quickly utilize the iodine if other supplements are also taken so it can be cured faster. So if a simple case for most people I would modify taking a bit larger drops of Lugol's solution to say 4-5 drops every night, with vitamin C 1000 mg, and 500 mg of tyrosine supplements. Or a more conservative dose, if someone still have problems is just to limit to 1-2 drops again. Another indirect way is to take the tyrosine supplements 500 mg with vitamin C in the morning followed by a 10 drops in 1/2 glass of water with lugol's solution as just a mouthwash. That should also reduce some of the problems. SO the cause of hypothyroidism and goiter has been the lack of iodine, how we can take them without problems is the real issue. In fact iodine can cured malaria as same as MMS, but both has problems with the side effects and some can handle them, some cannot. It's all about finding the remedies that won't cause problems for a great majority of people, not a small minority of people. In general for the questions of Lugols' versus the potassium iodide, the answer is simply that potassium iodide produces less side effects then the Lugol's solution, such as light headedness is the ones I noticed, but I take in much larger dose, such as 10 drops to test for their side effects. I won't get these problems at 1-2 drops. As for potassium iodide in general, there's no lightheadness problem if the dose are reasonable and keeping it at 10 mg dose or below. It's harder to do a 10 mg dose on Lugol's. In general, Lugols' for most people are easier to obtain then potassium iodide, so if it's hard to get, people will just get Lugol's and get around the problem by taking them at night and take the vitamin C to reduce the side effects of lightheadedness. It's taken during the night because lugol's solution does make you sleepy. Hence it's one of my remedies to help sleep also and allows people for regular sleep patterns.

Ted

Replied By Pat (Santa Monica, Ca) on 11/10/2010

Replied By Dallas (Amesbury, Ma, Usa) on 02/10/2011